Tomorrow, August 18th, the Baltic Chain Tour will start from Panevežys, Lithuania. The multi-day race, which lasts four days, culminates on August 21st in Tallinn.
Color and prestige are added to this years tour by two WorldTour development teams – UNO-X Dear from Norway and Alpecin-Deceuninck from Belgium.
Belgium’s future stars are largely from a cyclo-cross background, similar to Mathieu van der Poel, who did clean sweep at 2014 editon of Baltic Chain Tour.
In the ranks of the Alpecin-Deceuninck Development Team, two title medalists, Niels Vandeputte, silver in the U23 age group of the 2021 Cyclo-cross European Championships, and Ryan Cortjens, bronze in the junior category of the 2019 Cyclo-cross World Championships, will be on the starting line. In addition, the team includes Alex Bogna, an Australian with an interesting background – he rose to Alpecin’s rankings last year through the global Zwift Academy competition.
Among the members of the Uno-X Dare Development Team, last year’s stage winner Oskar Myrestøl Johansson is present as an “old” acquaintance. The 20-year-old Norwegian won last year last stage in Valga by making a proud solo ride in front of the main group for a whole 50 kilometers.
Tobias Buck-Gramcko, this year’s European champion of the U23 age group in the mixed relay race on track, will come to the Baltic Chain Tour in the German national team. He also rode the Baltic Chain Tour two years ago, at the age of 19, and was 15th overall. This year’s German championship silver in the U23 individual start in pocket – there is no doubt that the talent is there.
The Czech professional team ATT Investments is certainly hoping to get involved in the game, team leader, 23-year-old Tomaš Barta, has earned as many as 8 podium places in UCI lower category races this year and won a stage at the Gemenec GP multi-day race in Hungary. Most recently, Barta represented the Czech national team at the European Championship in Munich in the group race, where he took 42nd place.
Experienced Maris Bogdanovics, who won the Baltic Chain Tour in 2016, is expected to be the number one of the Latvian national team. Among the younger ones, 18-year-old Matiss Klaveršs deserves to be highlighted, who rides daily in the development team of the Astana Qazaqstan WorldTour team.
Lithuanians are represented by two professional teams of the continental level, among them Venantas Lašinis and Mantas Januškevicius, who have just competed at the group race European Championship, will start in the ranks of the Kaunas Cycling Team.
After the revival of the cycle tour in 2011, overall victory has been enjoyed twice by riders from Estonia and Latvia, and once by racers from New Zealand, Lithuania, Germany, the Netherlands, Ukraine and Norway. Will a new country be added to the list of winners this year?
Baltic Chain Tour 2022 stages:
August 18th – Panevežys – Panevežys, 156 km (Lithuania)
August 19th – Jelgava – Sigulda, 147 km (Latvia)
August 20th – Tartu – Antsla – Valga, 186 km
August 21st – Kuremaa – Tallinn, 207 km
All stages of the Baltic Chain Tour can be watched live on the Delfi portal and the tour website. Broadcasts are made in three languages. Exact information about the stages, routes, schedule and other important information can be found on the website: balticchaintour.com
